Philosophy Means Business
The skills and value philosophers can bring to the table in non-academic jobs
The Hard/Soft Dichotomy
Through their rigorous training, philosophers gain important skills that are applicable beyond the confines of academia. Unfortunately, philosophers are seen as only having ‘soft skills’, which are not generally perceived as contributing directly to a business’ value chain. Indeed, the common narrative is that ‘hard skills’ are for software engineers, lawyers, accountants and so on. These roles require specific training that is straightforwardly applied to their jobs. Meanwhile, philosophers don’t have ‘hard skills’ in this sense. It is unlikely your ability to (i) reconstruct the Euthyphro dilemma, (ii) critically evaluate Avicenna’s argument for the existence of God, or (iii) study the importance of literature in the fight for gender equality in De Beauvoir’s work will come up during a job interview.Â

Nonetheless, philosophers’ skills are particularly useful to the modern workplace. Before moving on, there are some assumptions we (the authors) hold throughout this post:
You, dear readers, work or want to work for a responsible employer that adheres to socially informed value systems;
Employers are socially conscious and have a genuine interest in promoting social values;
No single individual has (or is required to have) all the ‘soft skills’ and all the ‘hard skills’;
The end goal of employers is to build teams capable of delivering services and producing value; it’s not all about individuals.
The Philosopher’s Supporting Function
Philosophers develop ‘soft skills’ that are widely applicable in the workplace. Some of these are:
Argumentation skills: Philosophers learn to construct sound arguments, where the premises are valid and conclusions follow logically. We also learn to identify and adequately dismiss straw men, ad hominem and other inadequate ‘arguments’ and fallacies. Your ability to justify thought processes and provide solutions is invaluable.
Emotional intelligence: Philosophical debate requires engaging with views we may strongly oppose. Throughout a philosopher’s training, we learn to navigate difficult discussions whilst adhering to the most rigorous methods. Being able to adequately manage difficult conversations in the workplace is a key skill.
Analytical skills: As a philosopher, you can identify how different systems and roles within organisations interrelate. You have the ability to quickly understand how complex departments and roles mesh and result in viable business decisions.
These are some of the ‘soft skills’ you can celebrate and put to good use in the workplace. Ultimately, you are trained in the ways of reasonable and charitable debate, and have an eye for analysing the concepts and systems you work with. You are a bundle of insights waiting to impress.
However, adhering to the ‘hard-soft skill’ dichotomy in this way entails that philosophers outside of academia can only support those who develop products or provide specific services- the philosopher doesn’t make anything. Rather, their job seems to be to provide clarity of thought and facilitate productive discussions. Intuitively, these are functions for middle- and upper-management. The recent philosophy graduate might not have such roles in sight. However, given the usefulness of the above ‘soft skills’, it might be for responsible employers to seek out philosophy graduates. In turn, philosophers can enable businesses to refine their decision-making processes.
Philosophy and ‘Soft Structures’
Philosophers’ ability to establish conceptual frameworks is an impactful contribution to the structure of businesses. Philosophers acquire relevant skill sets for projects, departments, or organisations focused on diversity, inclusion, artificial intelligence (AI) ethics, etc. Philosophers can articulate definitions of values and practices that provide both clarity and consistency in such projects, departments, and organisations.
The Problem
Businesses these days have come to represent more than their products and services, but an ideology. Business ethics and building ‘brands’ have led to the popularity of certain practices, such as responsible research and innovation (RRI), diversity and inclusion (D&I), sustainability, etc. These require what we call ‘soft structures.’ We define ‘soft structures’ as theoretical frameworks that are established to help businesses attain the standards they promise with respect to their social/political/environmental impact. These ‘soft structures’ conflict with the straightforward hard/soft dichotomy.
Here are three examples of what we call ‘soft structures’:
ESG: Environmental, Social, and Governance investing
EDI: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion policies
CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility
In business settings, however, terms like ‘sustainability’ and ‘fairness’ are used without much investigation into what is actually meant when such terms are exercised. Similarly, the actions that follow these underdetermined concepts will convolute accountability and be inconsistent. What businesses need is a thorough approach to designing and implementing their ‘soft structures.’
The Philosopher’s Skill Set
This is where a philosopher has very specific skills - their analytical rigour makes them suited to establishing stable ‘soft structures’ and ensuring that the terms constituting such structures are clear and can be adhered to. Â
From the dreaded phrase ‘define your terms’ comes a philosophy student’s skill at establishing strict definitions for concepts and outlining where they do and don’t apply. Philosophers are practised in dissecting the meaning of terms like ‘equity’ and ‘responsibility’ with respect to their context. This ‘soft skill’ is important to create clear and consistent theoretical frameworks – ‘soft structures’-- upon which a business can effectively uphold and implement its values (or promises 😉).
Where ‘soft skills’ aren’t usually considered to contribute to the business structure itself, philosophers’ ability to create ‘soft structures’ –where broad concepts can be made clear and referenced consistently with each other– is a valuable and constructive contribution to a business.
The Impact
The impact of philosophical insight into ‘soft structures’ are:
Consistency for businesses,Â
Clarity in their internal and external communication strategies, andÂ
Continuity as the business progresses.
As businesses create or develop increasingly conceptually complex soft structures, philosophers have an opportunity to put their argumentation, emotional intelligence, and analytical skills to good use. The emergence of ESG, EDI, CSR, etc. demonstrates that businesses are coming to terms with the value-ladenness of their decision-making processes. The ability to identify when and how a business adheres to, or strays from, its fundamental values and goals is only made possible through the establishment of a stable ‘soft structure.’
Conclusion (Extra Nuance)
While philosophers provide valuable contributions to businesses, we must emphasise the importance of their delivery. If part of philosophers’ role is clarifying definitions and relationships of a company’s values, they must avoid philosophical jargon. The way philosophers communicate the complex concepts they are trained to deploy must be done in simple terms. In the business setting, philosophers are responsible for providing clarity… clearly. Don’t introduce new frameworks as ‘Wittgenstinean approaches’ or ‘epistemological inquiries’, just clearly establish definitions for terms that are already used and be ready to provide approachable explanations about your reasoning.
All of this said we wouldn’t be writing this post if we didn’t believe in the value that philosophers can bring to the workplace. So get out there and do what you’ve been trained to do! List your assumptions, find those inconsistencies, define those terms, and best of all, be the source of effective business ethos!
[This post was written by Jennifer Waters and Ismael Kherroubi GarcÃa, our collaborators and community members.]
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Best Wishes,
The Let’s Phi Team.
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